Questions & Answers
- Question: Can everyday items function as foci and material components?
Answer: Yes, unless the DM determines otherwise. The only reason I can think of for a DM to determine otherwise is if the DM says spell component pouches are themselves unique creations (e.g. they're connected to a plane of magic, they're specially prepared to prevent exhausting their contents), but I've never heard of this done in a game. Being able to go without a spell component pouch and instead rely on separate foci and material components is especially appropriate for a low-level sorcerer who might otherwise be able to cast all of his Spells Known with only a bag of chicharrón and a comfortable sweater.1
- Q: Can magic items be used as foci and material components?
A: Yes. For example, using a decanter of endless water (DMG 254) (9,000 gp; 2 lbs.) as the focus for the spell bless water [trans] (PH 205) renders the next pint of water that issues from the decanter holy water but leaves the remaining water unaffected. For example, after killing the marauding grig druid who made it, a reasonable DM should allow his cloak of resistance +1 (DMG 253) (1,000 gp; 1 lb.) to function as the "miniature cloak" material component necessary for casting the spell resistance [abjur] (PH 272). The latter is wouldn't be considered a wise use of resources, however.
- Q: Does a focus or material component that's the subject of an ongoing magical effect change the effect of a spell that employs that focus or expends that material component?
A: No. As long as the focus or material components satisfy the DM's opinion of the focus or material components needed for the spell, the spell can be cast, but a spell only does what the spell says it does. It would be problematic and tedious to develop such house rules as they would have to cover a huge range of possibilities unless either options were restricted to a very small set of effects (e.g. while the "pair of small iron bars attached to two small canine statuettes, one black and one white" needed as the arcane focus for the 6th-level Sor/Wiz spell repulsion [trans] (271-2) are the subject of the 1st-level Sor/Wiz spell grease [conj] (237), in addition to the standard effects of the spell repulsion, creatures who fail the Will saving throw are rendered prone) or the DM just concocted effects on the fly, a tremendous risk that can have serious long-term consequences on the campaign.
- Q: Are there rules for changing a spell's effects using material components?
A. Yes. There are evil spell components (BoVD 45-6), good spell components (BE 37-8), metamagic components (UA 139-51), optional material components (CM 135-6), and optional material components (ECS 91-2).
- Q: What would you suggest if a player attempts to cast a spell using an unusual but appropriate focus or unusual but appropriate material components, hoping for an unusual effect?
A: I'd probably say The spell works as written. Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 is already a hilariously expansive game with many, many options, and another layer of options on the game's already optimal problem-solving strategy seems indulgent. That said, if all of my players were interested in the increased complexity, I'd consider letting them experiment with alternative material components for minor changes to a spell's effects, but I'd keep ones that were important to the plot or significantly powerful rare or secret, to be located or discovered as the campaign progressed.
Kelgore's Fire Bolt
The 1st-level Sor/Wiz spell Kelgore's fire bolt [conj/evoc] (PH2 116) specifically "conjures a small orb of rock and sheathes it in arcane energy." There's just no way to substitute a different orb of rock for the orb of rock that's conjured, in much the same way a javelin of lightning (DMG 226) (1,500 gp; 2 lbs.) can't be substituted for the "stroke of electrical energy" in the 3rd-level Sor/Wiz spell lightning bolt [evoc] (PH 248). The magic creates the effect.
However, house rules might have the "handful of ashes" that are the spell Kelgore's fire bolt's material component change the spell's effect if the ashes were, for example, from a golem manual (iron) (DMG 258) (35,000 gp; 5 lbs.) or an ingredient a wizard had planned to use to create a homunculus (MM 154).
To expand on the first question and its answer, here's
A Brief History of Focus and Material Components in Dungeons and Dragons from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5
Being a caster in the earlier days of Dungeons and Dragons meant managing focus and material components. Although house rules often eliminated them, were they not eliminated they afforded the DM the opportunity to deny a caster his ability to cast some spells, forcing the caster to solve problems using different spells or even different means entirely (e.g. fleeing; grappling, overbearing, and pummeling; lateral thinking; role-playing; throwing daggers or darts).
Spoiler for an Over-30-year-old Adventure Module
That said, even the most famous old school railroading adventure module, Schick's A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords (1980), before play begins, removes all PCs' possessions, not just magic-users' components and spellbooks. Don't worry! Magic-users and illusionists get some scrolls.
The Player's Handbook (1978) says that
Material components for spells are assumed to be kept in little pockets, stored in the folds and small pockets of the spell caster's garb. Of course, some material components are too bulky, and in these cases the materials must be accounted for carefully. Also, some materials are rare, and these must be found and acquired by the spell user. (40)
Thus, beyond explicitly being able to "add or delete entire spells" as he was given permission to do a mere paragraph earlier, the DM is further given tacit permission to restrict access to spells by making some obviously inexpensive material components rare (e.g. the "tiny ball composed of bat guano and sulphur" [sic] as the material component for the 3rd-level magic-user spell fireball (73); the "small magnetized iron bars attached to two small canine statuettes, one ivory and one ebony" as the material component for the 6th-level magic-user spell repulsion (86)). Material components were both bad jokes and campaign management mechanisms.
In the Player's Handbook (1989, 1996) material components are handled differently:
When material components are required, these are listed in the spell description. Spell components are expended as the spell is cast, unless otherwise noted. [...] For cases in which material components are expended at the end of the spell [...] premature destruction of the components ends the spell. (114)
And that's it. Without optional rules material components are flavor text. A caster has the material components with which to cast his spells unless the DM uses the the section titled Spell Components (Optional Rules):
If the spell components optional rule is used in your campaign, your wizard or priest must have these items to cast the spell. Without them, he is helpless, even if the spell is memorized. For simplicity of play, it is best to assume that any spellcaster with any sense has a supply of common items he is likely to need--wax, feathers, paint, sand, sticks, and fluff, for example. For expensive and rare items, it is perfectly proper for your DM to insist that special effort be made to obtain these items. After all, you simply can't assume your character has a valuable pearl handy whenever he needs one! (113)
But the inclusion of the spell component pouch (5 gp; 3 lbs.) (PH 108, 111) in the Player's Handbook (2000) removed (except via rule O) the DM's ability to control what he considered problematic spells via making obviously inexpensive foci and components rare. Every wizard with a spell component pouch has within a "tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur" to cast the spell fireball (203-4) and a "pair of small iron bars attached to two small canine statuettes, one black and one white" to cast the spell repulsion (245)2 in addition to nigh infinite edible live spiders, miniature cloaks, powdered herring scales, undead creature bones, will-o'-wisp essence, and other gooey, icky, stinky stuff that must make anyone who carries a spell component pouch smell like a grease fire in crap factory.
War Story
The 1st-level magic-user spell identify (Player's Handbook (1978) 66-7) not only reduces the caster's Constitution score by 8 (knocking him unconscious for 24 hours if his score's reduced below 3) and only provides vague indications of what the magic item does if the caster first succeeds on d% (15% +5% per caster level) then successfully makes a saving throw versus magic, but also the spell identify has as its material components
- a 100 gp pearl,
- an owl feather,
- wine, and
- a live miniature carp.
Making sure goldfish survive while exploring a dungeon is difficult but necessary, as when a new magic item is found the "item to be identified must be examined by the magic-user within 1 hour per level of experience of the examiner after it has been discovered, or all readable impressions will have been blended into those of the characters who have possessed it since."
The 1st-level wizard spell identify (Player's Handbook (1989, 1996) 175) changed many of spell's details, but perhaps the most important change for anyone who labored under a DM who didn't house rule away material components was that the new edition removed from the list of identify's material components the live miniature carp.
Also of Interest
1 The material component for the spell grease [conj] (PH 237) is a "bit of pork rind or butter," and the material component for the spell silent image et. al. [illus] (PH 279) is a "bit of fleece."
2 "...the whole array worth 50 gp" was added in the 2003 Player's Handbook 3.5 (272).
Best Answer
They're only ignored if you have a spell component pouch or the feat Eschew Materials, and the ability to hold and prepare the components when casting the spell. If you can't prepare the components (because your hands are tied behind your back), every spell with a material component is unavailable to you, even if Still Spell would let you cast it without the somatic component.
They're also not ignored when casting spells that have expensive components.
As for why? It's carried over from previous versions, which were based on Vancian magic. At some point they seem to have decided that it was too much work to deal with, and the spell component pouch was invented to make it simpler to play with while keeping the flavour.
Most of them are fairly straightforward to get, in an economy where Wizards have lots of gold and a need for those items. Since there is demand for eggshells from two different types of creatures, someone will create supply to fill it and get some of that sweet Wizard gold.
Thus, if you can get to a city (and 3.5 generally expects that you will at some point), you can restock everything a Wizard would normally have. If your campaign takes place entirely in the wild? Then it could be more of a thing, but the rest of the party might get bored if you spend a session where the Wizard is harvesting.
No. Unless your goal is to balance Wizards by annoying them into submission (see below), this won't work. It really won't work on Clerics and Druids (up there in power with Wizards), because very few Divine spells have material components that don't have significant cost (ie: ones they already have to track).
The Wizard's greatest ability is that she can do absolutely anything, given time to prepare. With time to prepare, a Wizard can gather any components necessary for the spells she's preparing to use.
Yes, actually. I played in a game like this once. That's where my comment "annoying people into submission" comes from. It sucked.
What happened was every time I cast a spell, I had to open the book to figure out what component it used. Then I had to go find that component on my giant inventory list and remove one. Every time I got a new spell, I had to add new items to that list. Every time I went to town, I had to restock all those items up to some amount. The GM had to figure out if any of them had weight or cost, since the rulebook handwaves them all away with a spell component pouch normally.
It took what is already a complicated class with lots of things to track, and piled on a whole lot more things to track. As I had access to a city with lots of Wizards in it, actually getting components was largely never an issue. So it didn't really affect game balance at all (I was just as powerful as before). What it did was utterly destroy game flow by making my turns extra long to handle the bookkeeping, and taking extra time in town to do more bookkeeping.
It also caused everybody else to start putting pressure on me to take Eschew Materials to make the problem go away, but why should I have to burn a feat just to reduce bookkeeping at the table? That's trying to annoy a player into submission.
If someone tried to do that again in a game I was playing in, I'd play a Divine caster instead and only have a very small number to track. Obviously, I don't require it in my game. I do require components with cost to be tracked, as per the normal rules.